Today, some people seem to have borderline sympathy for Hitler, seeing him as a deliverer to the German people following the impossibly high reparations imposed on them post-WWI. However, sympathy for the German people can become seriously misplaced when it evolves into sympathy for Hitler and his policies. After all, there is a tremendous difference … More A Very Small Price
Discontent was growing in Russia, and poverty and the Tsar’s incompetence only worsened the issue. A parliament, the Duma, was established in 1905 to Westernize Russia and make it more democratic. Still, Tsar Nicholas II held absolute de facto control over the Russian government. The heavy cost of WW1 continued to mount pressures domestically as … More Lenin, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet Union
With WW1 raging across Europe, the United States claimed neutrality, but the Wilson administration was far from neutral. Throughout the war, the U.S. (justly) demonized Germany for breaking international law but ignored Great Britain’s violations. This double standard continued beyond just the battlefield and onto the negotiating table. In an effort to weaken the German … More Woodrow Wilson and WW1 Bias
On the eve of WW1, the European balance of power was changing. It was no longer the era immediately after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the same men who controlled foreign affairs in the post-Napoleonic world were a dying breed. The spreading nationalism of the Romantic period took hold of European powers, causing … More The Coming of WW1
Modernism is best understood through comparison with its two predecessors, Romanticism and Neoclassicism. The Neoclassical era began in the 18th century and emphasized the importance of the Greco-Roman ideals of logic and order, combined with the proper decorum of Europe and the Renaissance’s idea of effortlessness, i.e., sprezzatura. But by the 19th century, the Neoclassical … More Modernism: Creation Through the Eyes of Apostate Men
In short, the German Kulturkamp of the 1870s was a cultural schism between the Catholic Church and the State within the Prussian-dominated territories in Western Europe. With the rise of nationalism and imperialism across the West, nations looked skeptically towards foreign influences. To Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, arguably the most powerful man in Prussia, the … More The German Kulturkampf
If anything, it was the idea of personal superiority that consumed Prussian thought during the late-19th century, and Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) was the foremost follower of Prussian nationalism. Throughout his political career, all of his actions seemed to stem from a universal hatred of all things Austrian and a personal belief that Prussia stood … More German Unification
Italian Unification With a revolutionary fervor spreading across Western Europe in 1848, the Italian states found themselves in a precarious situation. All of the Western powers had hoped to retain centralized control around the monarchies through the Congress of Vienna, but the West’s impassioned voices could not be silenced. During this period, Guiseppe Mazzini gained … More Italian Unification
If the capitalist West wishes to vanquish any legacy of Karl Marx, it must attack the foundation he built on. If his underlying assumptions are thwarted, the entire socialist dogma will crumble. But that will only happen if socialism is recognized as not only impractical but also deeply immoral and if its foundation is shattered. … More Shattering Marxism
[Author’s note: Originally, these Marxist essays were written as one long essay. However, my research went into far more depth than I anticipated, resulting in an essay far longer than I planned. Because the section on Christianity became so long and deviated somewhat from my original thought, I broke it off into its own essay.] … More Marxism as Anti-Christian
Asher Sisneros 